Over 87 000 OVC registered for social grants last year

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare successfully registered 87 460 Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) to receive social grants countrywide last year.

There are currently 158 498 boys and 17 445 girls who are registered on the grant system.

In January this year, the ministry recorded that 328 943 OVC in total are receiving grants, an increment from 261 183 during the same period last year.

The ministry confirmed that at least 19 700 OVC outgrew the social grant system.

Despite its milestones, the ministry is still faced with challenges in the registration and approval of OVCs to receive grants, the Chief Public Relations Officer Walters Kamaya told The Villager.

“There are several challenges that the ministry faces such as that of parents not declaring their employment status. Also some parents’ whereabouts are not known which makes it a difficult process to register OVC for grants,” he said.

He added that the ministry is not in the position to confirm the number of applications received last year but that they were many.

One of the ministry’s major roles is to provide services and coordination to the public on issues of gender, children and development.

Statistics released by the Government Institutions Pension Fund in 2016 indicated that about 10 % of the Namibia’s population is living on social grants although the coverage for senior citizens seems to be large and that the lack of national documents for some people has contributed to them not receiving social grants from the state.